Museum Audio Descriptions vs. General Audio Guides: Describing or Interpreting Cultural Heritage?

Abstract

The question of objectivity vs. subjectivity in audio description (AD) is still open and unresolved, even more so when considering less researched AD sub-genres, such as museum ADs. While sparse guidelines for describing artworks and cultural artefacts tend to favour neutrality, no clear consensus exists, and the limits of a factual style have already been highlighted (Hutchinson & Eardley, 2019). By crossing the borders of Translation Studies (TS) to gain insights from Museum Studies (MS), this paper claims that the ideal of achieving absolute objectivity is problematic and that a comparison between museum ADs and other tools for the visit would be a beneficial contribution to the objectivity vs. subjectivity debate. In light of current theories in MS, this study seeks to explore subjectivity in museum ADs (primarily addressed to visually impaired visitors) and general audio guides (AGs). Trailing previous research into subjectivity in museum ADs (Gallego, 2019), a text-focused analysis based on the appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005) was conducted on a corpus of ADs and AGs to highlight discrepancies in terms of subjectivity between museum communicative practices aimed at different target audiences.